Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Introduction to Strengths-Based Teams

Over the last several years, when I work with agile teams, new or old, I have them take the StrengthsFinder assessment. I have found people in the Agile, Scrum, lean and XP camps who feel strongly about different aspects of how the work in our area is done. I feel very strongly about strengths, and would never work with a team without requesting they participate in the assessment and the training and guidance I wrap around that.

I have spoken on this topic from various angles for over three years, have used it with over a dozen teams, overseen over 100 assessments, read three books and parts of three others on the topic. I know it fairly well, believe in it, and want others to hear it.

I'll be sharing more on this topic this month, but for now let me share some introductory links of several videos from different perspectives, reference material and my own previous reference material.

Great video from Marcus Buckingham on strengths, how few of us play to our strengths, and myths that lead us away from our natural strengths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWZTdso2Njs

Overviews and handouts from talks I've given or submitted, and other posts on strengths-based teams and management.
http://scottdunn.blogspot.com/search/label/strengths


Great interview discussing the business reasons and they share about their own strengths with good practical examples from Tech Ranch in Austin. They provide training for entrepreneurs, and has every person they work with take the profile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wWIUu5fSlA

There are also now formal strengths-based programs at Baylor University and Azusa Pacific University's Noel Strengths Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education. There's also a good overview video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKCUmsZKQA


agile, strengths, management,Scrum

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